Illinois May Shoot Itself In Foot With Lead Shot Law

February 18, 1987|By John Husar, Chicago Tribune.

SPRINGFIELD — Unless an obscure Illinois law can be changed in the upcoming legislative session, state conservation leaders will be trapped into a legal collision with federal wildlife policy that could wipe out waterfowl hunting next fall in parts of nine counties, including all of Lake.

Other significant hunting areas affected would be the private goose pits near refuges in Downstate Jefferson County, as well as the Carlyle Lake mallard hotspot in Clinton County.

Lake County north of Chicago annually is the scene of manifold waterfowling opportunities for urbanites, including the Chain O`Lakes.

Also involved, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, are parts of Carroll, Cass, Henderson, Mason, Putnam and Calhoun counties that have not already been banned from using lead shot.

``We are at a crossroads now,`` said Temple Reynolds, chief of field operations for the Illinois Department of Conservation. ``Unless something happens soon, these areas just may go without any waterfowl hunting.``

The conflict stems from a court-forced mandate by the USFWS to ban the use of toxic lead shot for waterfowling by 1991. This is being done throughout the nation on a gradual county-by-county formula. The proliferation of lead shot in shallow waters where waterfowl feed on grains and seeds has been calculated to poison between 2 and 3 million ducks and geese each year.

That 2-year-old federal policy is opposed by a little-known Illinois law enacted a decade ago at the height of the lead-versus-steel-shot controversy. It prevents any ban on lead shot without proof that a toxic problem exists among wildlife in each specific area. It calls for lengthy attempts at treatment along with public hearings before a ban can be imposed.

None of the new areas has documented problems from the use of lead shot.

Since this particular federal policy requires approval by individual states, any state that denies approval can be threatened by USFWS refusal to open migratory waterfowl seasons in the areas being considered.

So far, all states in the Mississippi Flyway have bowed to federal wishes and acceded to graduated lead-shot bans. Iowa and Missouri have approved statewide bans on lead shot for waterfowling and Wisconsin is considering a similar ban.

Illinois stands alone in its statutory refusal to go along. Even so, parts of 23 counties along the Illinois and Mississippi rivers as well as the four-county southern Illinois goose quota zone have come into federal compliance because of a loophole involving endangered bald eagles, which consume lead-poisoned waterfowl. But this year`s expansion to areas not involving eagles brings the state law into potentially thunderous conflict.

``What it amounts to is that we cannot break our own law and tell the USFWS to go ahead and ban lead shot in these areas,`` Reynolds explained.

``And they have already told us that if we don`t go along, they will ban hunting in these new areas.``

Reynolds emphasized that areas already in Illinois` so-called ``steel-shot zones`` will not be banned from hunting. But unless the statute is changed to comply with federal policy all other Illinois counties--accounting for perhaps half the waterfowl harvest in the state--will be faced with a hunting ban as more and more come under the federal formula in the years ahead.

In a terse letter to USFWS chief Frank Dunkle, state conservation director Mark Frech outlined Illinois` dilemma, saying that state biologists are unable to document any losses of waterfowl due to lead poisoning in the areas in question.

Frech added that the DOC ``and our waterfowl hunting constituency are not pleased with the prospect of having areas within the state of Illinois closed.``

In an appearance Sunday before the Illinois Goose and Duck Hunters`

Alliance in Springfield, Frech said he has asked the attorney general to rule on the viability of a lawsuit. DOC lawyers, however, apparently have little hope that one would be successful.

Frech also cautioned against waiting for an outside chance that Congressional action might limit USFWS authority, considering that a previous bill never got out of committee.

DOC sources said an effort to modify the old statute is in the works, but its success will depend upon a groundswell of public support. So far, only one waterfowling group has taken a stand, and it opposes any change in state law. Miles Brueckner of Alton, a spokesman for Migratory Waterfowl Hunters, Inc., of Godfrey, Ill., called the USFWS position a form of blackmail that infringes on individuals` rights. He and other members of his group said they see the lead-shot ban as a step toward a general ban on hunting. They added that they are willing to have hunting denied in the affected areas in order to argue their point.